Category — EC6012

I’ve just gotten my teaching evaluations for the 2008 version of EC6012, International Monetary Economics.
 
To be honest, I’m gutted.

I have never read into, reflected on, or thought more about the teaching of any other course.

I’ve written two papers and a case study, and given several conference presentations about the experience of teaching this course (see here and here).

It’s clear though that the 18 students out of the 45 in the class who took the survey felt this iteration of the course was, by and large, a failure. Now, maybe the views expressed are not a representative sample, but I’m going to assume they are, because that’s the only way I’ll improve the course.

The feedback circled around the following points:

1. This guy is smart, knows his stuff and is enthusiastic about his material, but…
2. I don’t see the relevance of the course to me or this degree, it’s too theoretical.
3. I didn’t get any feedback.
4. The lectures were too short.
5. The exam was not what I expected.

This course took an enormous amount of time and effort to prepare, and while some aspects of the course were experimental—which were flagged as such—didn’t work, many of the criticisms just don’t bear up, at least not to me.

1. Irrelevance. Every lecture (and they are all recorded) contained a reference to the real world, what was happening then and there, in fact entire lectures were composed on the fly in response to changing economic conditions. When it looked like the US economy was in a stagflation, I stayed up all night putting together a lecture about the consequences of that for the US and EU economies. Yes, the material was technical, but all monetary economics is, by the nature of the subject.
2. Feedback. Just about every blog homework was commented on, weekly. I didn’t give feedback on the presentations, because there was no point—everybody gave everybody else a B+! I explained this in the last class. For examples of the feedback I gave, see here, here and here.
3. Too short. Each lecture was designed as a conversation starter. The conversation never started—no-one spoke in class. Rather than waste people’s time, I left. I explained this each time—again, all the lectures are recorded, so you can hear be saying this, but one student called finishing early ‘disgraceful’. I guess this really was the biggest failure of the course, and I won’t be repeating it next year (see below).
4. Exam. The exam was a clear iteration of last year’s exam, and the sample exam, and was marked fairly and clearly with a concise marking scheme as in the year before, which the students were given access to, so they were aware of the type of questions and the type of answers I was looking for. For comparisons between years, see here and here.

But not one thing about the last four points matters, because, at the end of the day, the module was obviously a failure in the eyes of the people I really needed to succeed with: the students.

I am in the business of communicating ideas. Whatever misperception(s) there might have been on the part of the students, it was my responsibility to clear those up. If a smart, hard working masters student doesn’t understand the relevance of a module to their degree, or can’t see the woods for the trees when it comes to an abstract model, or doesn’t get the points I was trying to get across in lectures, that is my failure as a lecturer, and I’ll own that failure as the students perceive it, and be sure to address their points in the next iteration of the module in 2009.

So, in reflecting on this experience, here are the things I’m going to change about EC6012 in 2009:

1. I’m going to start with the data, and show the students how to construct the models in real time with real world data using Mathematica, moving from there to numerical examples to the theory.
2. I’m going to ditch the blogs, the presentations, and the experimental continuous assessment techniques, and go for problem set-based assessment followed by a rigourous exam.
3. I’m going to lecture in the standard manner, for the two hours, rather than trying to do the conversational thing, which actually worked very well in 2007, but obviously was a failure this time around. In 2009 there will be 70+ students, so it won’t be a runner anyhow.
4. I’ll be on my toes with regard to feedback. I’ll create an online survey of each lecture, to check in real time whether each lecture was a success.
5. I’ll make it my business to stress, every lecture, how each part of the module connects to the students’ degrees and their potiential careers in finance and the business world.

Getting negative feedback is never fun, but when you experiment, you should be prepared for failure. While unpleasant, the feedback will result in a better version of the course in 2009. If any of the students from EC6012 still read this blog and have some ideas for how to improve the course, please drop me a mail.

And now, my friends, I’m going to get a drink.

Another semester draws to a close. Here’s what I learned from my little experiments in teaching this semester:

1. [EC6012] Asking students to give other students feedback on presentations isn’t smart: everyone will give everyone else a B+.

2. [EC4004] Text messaging in large classes works, but could be more effective if integrated properly into the lecture.

3. [EC6012] Modeling and numerical problem solving are preferable to problem-based methods in such a technical subject, with such defined end goals.

4. [EC4414] Students respond well to zero PowerPoint, though they take time to adjust to having technical pieces to read instead.

5. [EC4333] It’s always better to think in terms of concrete examples when teaching heterogenous classes, graphical models like the AS-AD and IS-LM need to be motivated carefully.

6. [EC4024] Students need more time with harder, abstruse material, like the Black-Scholes and APT models.

-For Next Year-

1. Improve and enhance the text message doo-hickey.

2. Rewrite the course outline for EC4333 to be based around successive historical episodes and case studies rather than putting the history part first and the analysis afterwards.

3. Strip out some of the macro modeling in EC4024 to make way for more time spend solving numerical BS/APT/etc examples. Spend more time in tutorials on this as well.

4. Consider not using PowerPoint for EC4333 this year entirely.

5. Include experimental and behavioural experiments in the tutorials in EC4004.

How to Download the lecture podcasts from Stephen Kinsella on Vimeo.

This term (Jan 28-April 27), this website has been visited by 25, 847 unique views, generating 39, 012 pageviews. Most of you spent the 10 minutes and 21 seconds you were on the site in the teaching area of the site, which makes sense.

The podcasts of the lectures were downloaded so many times it broke the site, which is why the later lectures in the course are hosted by vimeo.com. You can find all the lectures after about week 6 here.

If there’s anything else you think I can do to make this area of the site more usable, short of giving you the answers to the exams, please let me know.

This year’s International Monetary Economics spent a considerable amount of time explaining the basics of stock-flow consistent macroeconomic modeling. You were exposed to several canonical models early on (for example, [2]), with a view
to explaining the methodology of SFC modeling rather than the attributes of one model over another particularly.

In the course’s early phase, we saw three things.

First, the SFC modeling paradigm can easily replicate orthodox models. For example, SIM can be modified to incorporate the IS-LM framework.

Second, the SFC way of understanding macroeconomics has a significant advantage over orthodox New-Classical or New-Keynesian models in requiring stock flow consistency throughout each stage of model building. This stricture opens the model up to a more complicated structure, but has the advantage of a more realistic examination of macroeconomic phenomena.

Third, we saw how SFC models can be adapted to help understand the policy problems of the day, in particular the credit crunch and potential stagflation underway in the US economy.

We then dove straight into [1], looking at SIM, SIMEX, PC, PCEX, REG, REGEX, OPEN, and OPENEX, respectively. We covered material from chapters 1-7 in Godley and Lavoie in graduate-level detail.

On your blogs and in class, you solved several models and wrote up interesting commentaries of the current macroeconomic situation, as well as performing some simulations from Genarro Zezza’s work.

Finally, you worked in detail on an SFC paper from the literature, presenting the paper to your peers in the last few weeks.

My objectives when constructing this course were that students would be able to understand, solve, and manipulate simple stock flow consistent models, and apply them to aspects of the modern macroeconomy. If you feel you have come some way
towards this goal, then the course was a success.

2. Stuff to know for the exam
There are three main areas to revise for the exam:

(1) Each of the G&L chapters. Be able to solve SIM, SIMEX, PC and PCEX by hand, be able to understand and interpret simulations using the more complicated models.

(2) Your blogworks. Read over them and redo any you felt weren’t up to scratch.

(3) The reading pack. I’m not expecting you to know the whole thing cover to cover, but there will be questions designed to test your understanding of these readings.

Finally, the exam will be of the same format as last year’s exam, available on the blog.

Expect to need a calculator, pencils, and to draw diagrams.

EC6012_Lecture13_summary.pdf

For all exams, bring pens, pencils, a calculator, and your IDs.

Module: EC6012

Date: 19-May-08

Location: EGO10

Time: 16:00

Module: EC4024

Date: 13-May-08

Location: S114/15/16

Time: 09:00

Module: EC4004

Date: 12-May-08

Location: GYM,SPHALL

Time: 12:30

Here’s last year’s exam.

EC6012_Exam.pdf

EC6012 Lecture 10: The OPEN Economy from Stephen Kinsella on Vimeo.

This class has always been about Monetary Economics. This week we’ll take it into International Monetary Economics through the use of the OPEN model. We’ll use Eviews simulations to get to the heart of the matter, and consider a more complicated version of the model, if there is time.

Slides and a handout are at the link below.

[Read more →]

The CIFREM Doctoral programme at the University of Trento in Northern Italy is accepting applications for funded PhD positions for 3-4 years. If your research interests focus on Behavioural economics, Behavioural studies in management and organisations, Environmental economics, or International Economics, you should consider applying.

UL students can email me for more information.

Details about the course can be found here.

Here are the papers by group.

Decide on one slot, and fill in your first preference (no more than 1) using the scheduler here:

Click here to schedule your presentation.

Each group should produce a summary of the article as a handout for the audience, as well as slides if you feel they would be useful. Your intended audience is upper level undergraduates with some training in economics. Both your peers and I will be marking you on your presentations. I expect everyone in the class to make it to all the presentations.

Click below to get the individual papers by group.

[Read more →]

EC6012 Lecture 9 from Stephen Kinsella on Vimeo.

<rant>

I love getting emails, and I’m very good at responding to them quickly and efficiently.

I like getting text messages in large classes like EC4004, because it helps me interact with students more effectively.

I don’t like receiving emails as if they were text messages. Just now, a student sent me the following email:

Some of the slides that you used during the lecture today aren’t in the slides that were put up on Sulis. Are you going to put up an up-dated version of them?

This reminds me of an email I received a few years ago:

Hey wht cum up n exam? thx 

If you think this is the correct way to interact with a lecturer or anyone in a professional capacity, you need to think again.

Email etiquette is important, and will become more important as you move away from college into the workforce. Learn some.

Here’s a sample of the type of email I’d like to recieve:

Subject Line: I’d like you to do/say/write/explain something/meet me/clear something up/etc

Body: Hi Stephen,

I’m emailing you because….

Regards,

Jane Smith.

I won’t answer emails that aren’t written in a concise, respectful, professional manner. That’s my email policy.

In return, I promise to apply the same courtesy to you.

</rant>

Introduction

This is an interim lecture about stagflation, a situation we might actually find ourselves in sooner rather than later. We’ll define stagflation, look at episodes of stagflation in recent economic history, and study a model to explain and perhaps manage stagflation in the macroeconomy. We’ll relate the insights of these models to policies you might see implemented in the US Economy in the near future, and talk about what this might mean for Ireland’s economy going forward. Get your slides and handouts while they’re hot.

Slides

| View | Upload your own
Handouts

EC6012 Lecture 9 Handout

Click the link below for links, a timeline, and a link to the paper we’ll use in the paper.

[Read more →]

Introduction

This is an interim lecture about stagflation, a situation we might actually find ourselves in sooner rather
than later. We’ll define stagflation, look at episodes of stagflation in recent economic history, and study a
model to explain and perhaps manage stagflation in the macroeconomy. We’ll relate the insights of these
models to policies you might see implemented in the US Economy in the near future, and talk about what this might mean for Ireland’s economy going forward. Get your slides and handouts while they’re hot.

Slides

Handout

[Read more →]

link

Embedded Video

Much macroeconomic news points to a stagflation taking place in the US economy.

Modify the PC model we covered in lectures to allow for the simulation of a stagflation-type episode in the economy.

Due up on your blogs Monday night.

link

1. The lads in Group 4 point me to an increasingly scary set of numbers. First, look at the CDS stressors and lending candlesticks (see graph above). Second, check out ft.com. I’m sending you to the homepage to get whatever’s newest on the crisis. As Brad DeLong said this week, it’s pedagogically brilliant, but wow, some people are losing their arses out there.